Faith, school, immigration: How current US policies are impacting children | Opinion

Much in the news is disturbing: Too much revenge and retribution.

I read most recently a thoughtful piece on children by the iconic Wendell Berry. It reminded me of a summer long ago working on a survey party in South Florida and awaiting my date with the U.S. Army at Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania. With our bull pins and sledgehammers, we were putting in “monuments” on an airfield (how many can there be?) in the Everglades. I can’t conceive who would assign a place like that the cutesy name Alligator Alley.

I also read of the first meeting of President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, established at the Department of Justice and meeting at the Museum of the Bible, thanks to an executive order signed on the National Day of Prayer. Trump was said to be dismissive of the separation of church and state (“let’s forget about that for one time…”).

The surge of recent support for government-funded vouchers to allow students to attend private schools – especially religious based private schools – once again raises the question “Is America a Christian nation?” The real question is, did the Founding Fathers designate a religion to be the official faith of America in the same manner that some nations have done?

In recent years there has been a popular movement to provide government-funded “vouchers” to parents who wished to enroll their children in private schools. Originally, the program encompassed only parochial schools, but the scope of these voucher programs has expanded. The argument is that parents should have a wide choice in selecting their child’s school. The trend toward private schools received its greatest boost by the Supreme Court, ruling in 1954 outlawing school segregation. In the turmoil that followed, many parents abandoned public education and created so-called “segregation academies,” many of which still function to this day and hamper the success of public schools. Do these efforts now warrant the federal imprimatur?

Another area that has affected children, especially those whose parents lack citizenship documents, is the current war on immigrants. No matter how one feels about immigration, little children are in a different league. They do not make their own decisions, but yet they are at an impressionable age. The trauma they are exposed to from a confinement featuring “filth and despair” will scar them for life.

If the President and his architects of human misery visit the Museum of the Bible again, may their eyes rest upon a famous quote: “Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.”

Now let’s not even begin to talk about Gaza.

Larry Fennelly can be reached at larney_f@hotmail.com

This story was originally published August 1, 2025 at 2:28 PM.